Mumbai: Today is the death anniversary of Vinod Mehra, who started his career in Hindi film industry as a child artist. Vinod had said goodbye to the world October 30, 1990 at the age of 45. Vinod started his career as a hero with the film Ek Thi Rita in 1971 alongside actress Tanuja.
Vinod’s film career was on track when his mother started worrying about his marriage. Mehra’s first marriage to Meena Broca was arranged by his mother.
He suffered a heart attack and recovered very soon but his marriage was tearing apart.
Vinod then lost his heart to heroine Bindiya Goswami. Meena was left with no choice but to file for divorce. Mehra’s relationship with Bindiya unraveled very quickly, and she soon left him to marry director J. P. Dutta. Vinod remained single after Bindiya left.
The news of the affair between Vinod and Rekha made a lot of headlines during that time.
Rekha’s biography The Untold Story, by Yasser Usman, mentions the incident where after marrying Rekha, Vinod took Rekha to his home but his mother was furious. She did not want Rekha as her daughter-in-law. Such was her hostility to Rekha that she reportedly pushed the actress away when the latter tried to touch her feet and nearly beat her up with a sandal.
Mehra’s mother did not let the new ‘bride’ enter the house. With Rekha at the door, her mother-in-law kept abusing and humiliating the actor.
Vinod intervened but failed. Later this relationship broke up.
In 1988, Mehra married Kiran, daughter of a Kenya-based transport businessman. The marriage lasted until his death two years later and produced two children: a daughter named Soniya (born in 1988) and a son named Rohan (born posthumously). Mehra died of a heart attack 30 October 1990. He was only 45 years of age.
